The Healer
by faded colors
Summary: Zoro/OC. She annoyed him. The way she titled her head to the side whenever she was confused, how she couldn't hold a sword without almost vitally injuring herself, and how she kept trying to see the curse on her people as 'positive'. But no matter how hard Zoro tried he couldn't deny that he enjoyed being around Wren- and that was the most annoying thing about her. M for lang.
1. The Cursed Girl and the Injured Man

**CHAPTER 1: The Cursed Girl and the Injured Man**

* * *

_All you are is a cursed little girl Wren, a miserably cursed little girl._

Most people think that it is the person with insomnia that suffers, but in fact it is the person sharing a room with the insomniac that truly suffers. The only noise in the room was the wall clock that was ticking away each and every second of the early morning. The two large ceiling fans cut the air silently as they continued their never-ending circle, cooling the room down to a comfortable sleeping temperature. The three windows weren't covered by any shades, allowing the room to be illuminated by the moonlight. Everything in the room was doubled, two dressers, two desks, and two beds, but at this time one of the beds was unused. Peaceful. For those few moments all was peaceful for the one sleeping girl in the occupied bed.

The creak of the door was the first sign of unusual noise for this time. The door was only opened enough for the slender girl to slide through, and make sure she hadn't disturbed her sleeping sister. She was still dressed in her pajamas, her brown hair tied up into a ponytail as her bangs hung across her forehead. As she walked towards her desk, fourth cup of coffee in hand, she made no noise. The only sign that she was in the room was her barely audible breath, which flowed evenly and calmly. The coffee cup clinked slightly as it was placed on the glass desk, but the sleeping girl did not stir. The desk chair scratched the floor for only a second, but still there was no sign that any disturbance was being caused. With a low sigh of relief that she had yet to wake her sibling, the girl sat down in her chair, took a sip of her coffee, and picked up her pencil.

_Now where was I?, _she thought as she quietly flipped open the book lying on her desk to where she had bookmarked it with a piece of lined paper. The paper was already halfway full with almost illegible notes, but there was still much more to be written. The pencil had barely hit the paper, barely written one word, barely let out almost an inaudible squeak when without any notice-

"Damn it Wren! Why do you have to be so loud!"

The pillow managed to completely miss Wren, and make a beeline for her cup of coffee. "Do you want to make a mess?" Wren whispered harshly as her hand snapped out, grabbing the coffee and moving it out of the path of the pillow. Unfortunately the pillow just hit the pencil holder instead and sent an array of writing utensils flying off the desk before they hit the floor.

"Do you see what you do!" the once sleeping girl was in a tirade as she sat up angrily, her blonde hair a mess and a fire burning in her eyes.

"_Me_?" the brunette placed the coffee cup back down and turned around to look at her sister, "Stora…who threw the pillow?"

"I don't know why I got stuck sharing a room with you," Stora snarled, flopping back down onto her bed.

"Because I'm number six and you're number five, that's how it works."

"I know that idiot," the blonde sat back up in the bed as she watched her younger sister of a year begin picking up the fallen pencils, "Why I couldn't have been born eleventh and get my own room is beyond me."

"You really want to be twelve years old?" Wren asked, referring to their youngest sister- Pipit, who was the last born in their family and managed to get her own room since she was born eleventh.

"I'd rather be twelve and having my own room than nineteen and stuck with you. Go outside or something," once again Stora laid back down, letting out a groan of frustration as she did so, "I don't even know why you insist on that stupid research of yours. You really must be dumb if you think you're gonna be able to change anything. You're an idiot Wren, an idiot who can't even sleep through the night."

_Just a cursed little girl._

Wren could feel her blood beginning to boil as she grabbed her book, a small flashlight, a few extra sheets of paper, and a pencil and began exiting the room, making sure to slam the door on her way out. _I can't just give it up_. Her footsteps made no noise as she walked through the dark hallways, her hands tightly clutching onto her book. Finally she made it to the front door of the large house, and the cool morning air helped ease her frustration with her sister. The fog hadn't lifted from the island yet, making it difficult to see much, but Wren knew where she was going and soon she was sitting on the grass outside of her home. She had turned the flashlight on and set it on the ground, giving her the extra light necessary to continue reading the book lying in front of her. _I'll never give up. I can fix this, no matter how dumb you think I am Stora I'm getting close- I can feel it._

"I will figure it out," Wren breathed as she laid her pencil down on the ground, "I promised her I would."

"_Momma? Momma are you okay?"_

"_Wren! Honey you need to leave, Momma isn't feeling very well."_

"_But Daddy, Momma's gonna get better right?"_

"_No I won't get better, I'm going to die."_

"_Momma! Don't say that Momma! You don't know that, you're going to get better! Look, I will cuddle next to you all night, and then you will feel better."_

"_You're a stupid child."_

"_It will work Momma and you know it, it always does."_

"_We are cursed Wren we-"_

"_Then I'll break the curse, I'll make you better, I promise, just watch."_

Wren had been so consumed in her thoughts, her memories, that she hadn't heard the phone ring from inside her house, nor had she heard the front door open and close rapidly. She had yet to hear the footsteps running towards her, until she felt the rush of air as they ran past. "Dad?" Wren was confused as to why her father was suddenly running across their front yard at six in the morning.

"Huh?" the older man stopped as he pivoted around to see one of his daughters sitting crossed legged on the ground only feet away from him, "Wren? What are you- oh what am I talking about _of course_ you're up at this hour," he sighed, knowing that this daughter had probably been up since three or four in the morning.

"So uh, where are you going?" Wren noticed that her father was no longer in his pajamas, and a black hat adorned his head, covering his greying hair.

The man hesitated for a moment, unsure whether or not he should inform his daughter of the call he just received, "Pirates," he finally muttered, "Pirates have been spotted, they are heading towards our island."

The man expected shock from his daughter, which he did receive when her eyes widened a bit. Pirates had never been spotted at this island, _never_. They were well hidden, off course from every island here on the Grand Line and for good reason too. "I'm going with you."

"What?" the man wasn't sure he had heard his daughter correctly until he saw her grab her book and begin sprinting towards her room to change, "Wren you can't!" he called, trying to not be loud and wake the others.

"Wait for me!" she called as she entered the house, running wildly towards her room. She was trying not to cause much of a commotion, but in her manic state she forgot to quietly open the door to her room and instead flung it open, making a loud creaking noise and slamming it against the back wall.

"Ugh!" Stora groaned as she grabbed a pillow and held it over her head, trying to block out all the noise her sister was making.

Wren didn't even apologize as she threw her book onto the ground, causing yet more noise, and then began quickly stripped out of her pajamas. She grabbed the closest articles of clothing, a pair of black shorts and a light blue pull over sweatshirt with sleeves that hit just below her elbow. She slipped her black flip flops on in record time and left her dirty clothes strewn on the floor as she once again went off sprinting. When Stora finally took the pillow off of her head and looked around the room, her sister was nowhere in sight, which is exactly how she wanted it.

Running barefoot would have been much easier than trying to sprint in flip flops, but even after almost tripping a few times Wren never slowed her pace. She was slightly surprised to see her father still waiting for her outside of their home. She knew he didn't want her going with him, and figured the easiest way to try to deter her would be to leave her. Once she reached him he didn't say a word, instead he just began running himself, taking off through the fog towards the harbor.

The air was moist, making it difficult to take in a decent amount of oxygen. The island wasn't very large; only one town inhabited by somewhere around four thousand people, yet the fog had a way of distorting things. The sun had already begun its ascent into the sky, lifting some of the fog and casting enough light for the two to redirect themselves and easily head for the harbor.

"Took you long enough Peregrine," the gruff voice called out, "Oh and I see you brought…now which one are you? Hawk? Pigeon? Or maybe-"

"Wren," the eighteen year old called out, instantly recognizing the rough voice of Magda, the eighty something year old who of course would be the first one to see pirates coming towards the island.

Magda had a home, a nice one at that, but she insisted on sleeping on an old blanket out on the beach every night. Most people just assumed that Magda was crazy, and the rumors over how she got that glass eye just further ostracized her. She was oddly short, a few inches away from five feet and her back had a curve to it that just made her seem shorter. She hardly ever talked to anyone, but the old, haggard woman didn't seem to mind and continued her life on the beach. She would only go to her home when need be, like when she needed to call Peregrine to tell him of the approaching pirates.

"Oh yes! Wren! My mind isn't what it used to be, plus I get all you girls confused, there are _so_ many of you."

"Only eleven," Wren mumbled as her and her father walked towards the old woman, who was wearing a black cloak, the hood covering her head.

"Where is the ship Magda?" Peregrine asked before the old hag could say another word.

"Over there," her bony finger stuck out from under her cloak, pointing to a slow moving vessel that was being covered by the fog, "Should be here in a few minutes I say. Those _men_ should be ashore soon," the glass eye glistened in the soft light as Magda looked at Peregrine from under her cloak, "Wouldn't you say Perry?"

"Wren put your hood one," Perry ordered, his voice low and full of tension, "And here," he said as he took off his black trench coat and gave it to his daughter, "Put this on as well, button it up to the very top."

The trench coat was numerous sizes too large for Wren, yet she did as her father commanded. She could tell that he was nervous, because as long as Wren could remember they hadn't had any visitors to the island, let alone pirates. Plus the way Magda had said the word _men_ as if she was spitting the word from her mouth, it made Wren wonder if that was why her father was now so tense. Perhaps the people on this ship would be hideous monsters, vulgar beings with no souls, the thought made Wren shiver. She had never seen anyone from outside of her island, and perhaps these strangers would be completely different than what she was used to. The three of them stood on the shore for around ten minutes, and Wren's mind seemed to be racing the whole time. And the more she thought about the possibilities the less scared she got and the more curious she became. She knew the same wasn't happening for her father, whose jaw was locked the whole time, and Wren wasn't even sure if a single thought was passing through Magda's mind due to her completely blank expression.

"Hey!" the island's silence was broken by a loud voice yelling from the ship as it was just about to dock, "Is one of you a doctor!"

"What?" Wren asked as she tried to see who was talking, but the fog hadn't completely lifted yet.

"Don't speak," her father ordered, "And put your head down." Wren's curious eyes were forced down onto the sand, her mouth shut as she waited for the pirate to speak again.

"Hey guy!" the same voice yelled out, "You kinda look like a doctor!" he yelled, speaking to Peregrine.

"You need to turn around!" Peregrine yelled, his deep voice piercing the still air.

"Huh?" the pirate asked.

"He said we need to turn around Luffy!" a female voice from the ship said.

"Oh," the first voice, now identified as a guy named Luffy, said calmly, "Nope, sorry, we need either a doctor or some bandages, and lots of em!"

"Are you trying to get us killed! They seem serious, maybe we should just turn around!" another male voice said, obviously scared.

"There's only three of em," Luffy coaxed, "We could take em if we had to!"

"Leave now!" Peregrine called again, but his words were muffled out by the sound of the anchor dropping from the ship.

"Huh?" the first voice called out again as the fog began moving and the ship came into clearer view, yet Wren still had her head down.

"Let me handle this!" the female voice yelled out.

"Oh Nami you are so attractive when you handle situations!" yet another male voice said, and if Wren was keeping track correctly that meant that so far there were four people on that pirate ship.

"Please sir," the female voice, who had been called by the name Nami, said again and Wren peeked out from under her hood to see an orange haired girl standing on the ship, her hands placed on the railing, _well she doesn't look any different from us,_ Wren thought as the girl continued, "We aren't here to cause you any harm. One of our friends is injured and we ran out of medical supplies. He got an infection from not changing the bandages, but we just don't have anymore. Please we just need some help."

Wren watched as her father's face softened and she saw the conflict rage in his eyes. Their people had always vowed to help others, to try to turn their curse into a blessing for those they came in contact with. But never before had they come in contact with outsiders, and to let them step foot on their island could be too large of a mistake to make.

"Please old man!" Luffy called out, and Wren was about to look back when she caught Magda's eyes and knew that she needed to keep her head down.

"Let me see the injured one!" Peregrine called out.

"Right!" Luffy said and after a few moments Wren heard her father let out a low groan.

"Is he unconscious?" he asked.

"He's sleeping," Nami said in an annoyed tone, "He does that."

"Normally he gets better by just sleeping it off, but it just keeps getting worse and he's been asleep for over two days now trying to fight it off," the male voice that had been so afraid moments before explained.

"C'mon Mr.!" Luffy pleaded.

"But you're pirates," Peregrine said, more to himself than to the crew on the ship.

"Yeah…" Luffy's voice trailed off "So what? We won't hurt you or anything."

Peregrine stayed silent for a while, his eyes shifting between his daughter, the town behind him, and the injured man. "Fine," he finally said, "We will help you."

"Yeah!" Luffy yelled out, "Let's go then!"

"Wren," Peregrine said softly, "I don't want this getting out to the others just yet," he explained in a whisper, "I will need you to sit by the injured man," this he said with some difficulty, not happy that his daughter would be around these outsiders, but he had no choice.

"Can I look up now?" Wren's voice was tentative as she peeked out from her hood and up at her father who let out a long sigh before pulling her hood off her head.

Wren took in the ship in front of her; it was a decent size with what looked to be some kind of an animal head at the front. Then she heard the footsteps of the crew, walking on the sand towards them. Four of them walking, and one man slung over the shoulder of the one with the straw hat, who she assumed to be the one named 'Luffy'. She didn't look at the others much, because her eyes immediately went to the injured one. It was a man with green hair, but before she could see his face her father spoke.

"Go back to the house and get the bandages from the storage room. Also get the medical kit, if we absolutely need to we will call Dr. Gwen later, but for now we need to keep this a secret. Get the bed ready in the spare room, and wait there for us." Wren had heard what her father had to say, but she was still busy trying to catch a glimpse of the injured man's face, "Wren!" Peregrine's voice boomed, catching his daughter's attention immediately, "Go."

Wren didn't waste another second as she turned on her heels and began speed walking back towards her home. As she walked away she heard the one with the straw hat speak, "Thanks for your help old man, my name's Luffy, I'm the captain of this ship."

"And what's this injured one's name?" she heard Magda coo, obviously interested in this strange turn of events that had brought a pirate crew to Perch Island.

"Zoro, his name's Roronoa Zoro."

_You can't save me, you can't save anyone. Because all you are is a cursed little girl Wren, a miserably cursed little girl._

* * *

**Author's Note: **To all of you who just finished reading this chapter: thank you! I hope you all enjoyed chapter one of The Healer, and yes: there is an original character. Her name is Wren and you all will find out more about her as time goes on and hopefully grow to love her. Everyone in her family is named after a bird, or their name has something to do with birds. I actually came up with the reason to why I did this after I decided to name them all bird-ish names (reason why to be explained at a later date). Anyway, thank you to everyone who has stumbled across this little story of mine. I love, love, love feedback and I want to make this story the best it can be, so don't be shy and please leave a review. Thanks again :)


	2. The Creep and the Crew

**ChAPTER 2: The Creep and the Crew**

* * *

_Hmm he's….different. _Wren couldn't think of an appropriate word to describe the swordsman as she hovered over him. _Well he doesn't look anything like Dad_, she thought as she tilted her head sideways. The last time she had seen someone of the male gender other than her father was twelve years ago, so needless to say she had forgotten what they looked like. All the men left then, except for her father of course, and now the island was all women and one man. _He doesn't have wrinkles like Dad_, she furrowed her eyebrows looking for any lines on the swordsman's face, but there were none. _And Dad has black hair…not green_; she shifted her eyes up from his face and to his hair, which was almost a mossy color. _And Dad doesn't really have that many muscles_; her eyes then went down to his chest, which was bare except for the bandages across his lower abdomen. _Probably from all the sword fighting he does_, she turned her head to look at the three swords leaning up against the wall of the small room.

Wren had been alone with the man named Zoro for nearly an hour now, and the guy hadn't moved a muscle. The only sign that he was still alive was his breathing, and the occasional snore. She hadn't really gotten to talk to the others much, considering it all happened rather quickly. All she found out was their names: Luffy, Nami, Sanji, and Usopp. Once they dumped the swordsman off onto the small bed, Peregrine quickly changed the bloody bandages and ushered the others out of the room. No doubt he was hiding them somewhere in the house, especially the three boys. Wren knew that if her sisters laid eyes on any of these guys they would be inspecting them, just like she had been busy inspecting Zoro. She figured eventually her father might let the secret out, but right now he was probably trying to explain why he had them locked up in a broom closet or something.

* * *

"An island full of women?"

"Yes Nami, I'm the only man here on the island," Peregrine answered from his seat on a dark purple chair. In front of him sat four pirates, yet the more he talked to them the more he realized that they weren't your typical pirates.

"So how many people live on this island?" Usopp asked as he took a sip of his water, which their host had been so kind to serve them.

"There used to be many towns on this island making the population somewhere near twenty thousand, perhaps even more, but now there is only one town on Perch Island with around 4,000 people in it."

"4,000 women….this place is too good to be true!" Sanji obviously missed the most important part of what Peregrine said and instead became enthralled at the idea that here he was on an island with 4,000 women and only five men. His odds with these women were fantastic to say the least.

"What happened to everyone else who lived here?" Nami asked, ignoring Sanji completely.

"Did you know that you are the first visitors we have had in over a decade?" Peregrine's question snapped Sanji out of his day dream, seeing how the question seemed so odd.

"A decade?" Sanji knew they had randomly stumbled across this island, but he couldn't imagine that in over a decade they were the only people on the Grand Line to find it.

"The fog keeps us relatively hidden, only lifting for a few hours at a time during the day, but over the years the current has changed around Perch Island. Even if someone were to catch a current leading them towards this island, they would most likely not be able to find it due to the fog. That is why I'm surprised you all managed to get here."

"Truth be told, it was just luck that we found this island. We got caught up in a storm that changed our course completely, plus we had a run in with some pretty nasty people- that's how Zoro got hurt. Normally he would have been fine, but he wasn't getting any better and our log post wasn't getting us anywhere. We knew we had to get to an island to let it reset, so luckily we stumbled across this place," Nami explained, leaning back in her chair.

"I'm happy we could be of some service to you, but you can understand why I have to hide you all. Some women on this island have never seen a man besides me, and although I know you mean no harm I cannot help but feel that they would be threatened by you. The log post should only take about a day to reset, and I hope you all wouldn't mind if you just stayed in my home for a that time. Or more specifically in this room, you see I have eleven daughters and wandering around the house will surely attract their attention."

"Eleven!" Usopp hollered as he slammed his hands onto the armrest of the chair, "_You_ have eleven daughters! Jeez that must be a nightmare!"

Peregrine let out a laugh as he saw the shock on their faces, "It isn't as bad as you think. They are quite helpful, you met one earlier if you recall."

Nami thought for a moment, trying to recall the name of the girl who had been left with Zoro, "Wren right?"

"Yes, that is my sixth born daughter. She is eighteen, around your age I assume."

"Why did you leave her with Zoro? I'm sure he would have been fine just sleeping it off," Usopp understood that Peregrine may have left her to make sure Zoro didn't wander off somewhere, but why leave his daughter when they just could have stayed in there with him?

Before Peregrine even had a chance to answer Sanji was out of his chair and frantically looking around the room. "What's wrong Sanji?" Usopp stood up as well, looking around to see what the cook was searching for.

"It's been too peaceful in here," Sanji explained, and immediately Nami's eyes filled with horror.

"Luffy!" she screamed, standing up and scanning the room, but their captain was nowhere in sight.

"Damn it Luffy where'd he run off to!" Sanji grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and made a beeline for the door.

"He couldn't have gone far!" Usopp was following Sanji, wondering when in the world their captain left, but he assumed before the whole 'you need to stay in this room' part of the conversation.

"Guys!" Nami had tried to catch their attention as they ran towards the door, "Guys!" again, no luck, "HEY MORONS!" That worked.

"Yes my dear Nami?" Sanji asked, his mood softening for a moment.

"We can't leave this room remember?" Nami had reached new level of impatience as she waited for the light to click in the heads of these two.

"Oh….yeah," Usopp said slowly as he took his hand off the door knob.

"But we can't just let Luffy walk the streets. He gets in trouble in places where he's _allowed_ to be outside. Sorry Peregrine, but we have to go find him before he makes a mess of things," and with that Sanji flung the door open, "Plus I can't let him harass all those pretty girls now can I?" this he said in a much less serious tone, which only made Nami more irritated, but the chef ran off before she could say anything.

"Wait for me!" Usopp called as he also ran out the open door, leaving Peregrine and Nami standing in the middle of the room.

"So much for keeping it a secret," Peregrine sighed, "C'mon, let's go find your friend."

* * *

"Zoro," Wren said softly as she turned her head to look at the sleeping man lying next to her. She was becoming bored as she lay next to him on the bed, her back propped up by some pillows. "Zoro," she said again as she placed the book she had preoccupied herself with back down on the nightstand. She really did just wish he would wake up so she could go do something else.

"Man you can sleep," she muttered as she sat up, swinging her knees under her so she was sitting on them. She couldn't help but examine him again, seeing how he was already the most interesting person she had ever met. _Sad…the most interesting person I've met is a guy who has been passed out the whole time._ She sighed as her eyes landed on the scar on his chest, it was one of the first things she had noticed about him, and it still made her cringe every time she looked at it.

"I wonder how you got this," she whispered as she tentatively touched her finger onto one part of the large scar, "Ugh I can't even touch it without being in pain," she pulled her hand away, wondering just how tough this guy was. She was about to lay back down when something caught her eye.

"Oh," she breathed as she began leaning over Zoro, keeping her knees on the right side of him, but placing her hands to his left. There on his left earlobe were three identical gold earrings, each dangling down. She had never seen a man wear earring before, or it's better to say she had never seen her father wear earrings before, but on Zoro they looked nice. _I suppose he is rather handsome_, she thought as she turned her head to look at his sleeping face.

Just as she was about to go back to the side of the bed she had been sitting on she noticed something else on Zoro's left side. Near his hip there were small scars, not as noticeable as the one on his chest, but they were of a decent length and seemed to go over onto his back. The more she looked the more small scars she noticed, and she was sure that she would see the same on his right side of his body if she really focused in on it. _You really are scarred up huh?_ She thought as she gently ran her hand over a scar on his left side.

_Something tickles_. Zoro had no clue what it was but it felt like a fly had landed on his side. With a low groan he lifted his right arm and smacked at his left side. He figured the fly would just get the hell away, he didn't expect it to talk. "Ow," he heard someone mumble. Zoro's mind was still cloudy from being out for so long, and as he slowly opened his eyes it took him a while to figure out just what he was looking at. It was a girl, who was currently shaking her left hand. It seemed that he was lying on a bed, shirtless, and some random girl who he had never seen in his life was kneeling over him. Then he realized that it wasn't a fly that was touching his side, it was _her_. _She's pretty_, his hazy mind thought as it was having difficulty processing what his eyes were seeing. _Wait a minute_, he thought as things began to get clearer.

"Who the hell are you!" he didn't realize his voice would be so loud, he also didn't realize that he's scare the girl so badly that she'd fall backwards and right off the bed, but truth be told he didn't really care.

Wren's head hurt, and her heart was racing a million miles a minute. He had scared the life out of her, and as she lay on the ground, looking up at the ceiling she was desperate to catch her breath, "Did you hear me damn it! I said who the hell are you!" her head felt heavy as she lifted it to see the swordsman yelling at her from the bed, "Shit, of course I get separated from the others and left with some creepy moron," Wren knew that Zoro was talking to himself, but he said it loud enough that he wanted her to hear as well.

"Creepy?" she inquired as she sat up, tilting her head to a side a bit, but Zoro wasn't even paying attention to her anymore. Instead he was just muttering things to himself and looking down at his bandages. While he did this Wren took the opportunity to stand up and sit herself back down next to the now awake swordsman.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" his voice was low, threatening, and it made the hair on the back of Wren's neck stand up.

"I need to sit next to you," her head was still in pain from hitting it against the ground that she couldn't seem to come up with anything better to say, "It'll make you feel better," she tried, but it still wasn't enough explanation for him.

"I feel fine, now damn it get away from me," he growled as he pushed past Wren and stood up.

"I wouldn't go too far away from me if I were you," she tried to warn him, but he wasn't listening. He was moving towards his swords on the opposite side of the room, but before he even got there he was overwhelmed with a sense of pain, "See what I told you!" Wren rushed to his side, noticing how he was starting to fold over from the pain.

"Didn't I say to get away from me!" Zoro forcefully shoved Wren's arm away that was trying to help him stand up.

"I'm just trying to help you!" now Wren was starting to get mad, who did this guy think he was? Here she had been, sitting next to him for over an hour, wasting her time trying to help him, and here he was yelling at her?

"How the hell are you going to help me!" Zoro asked, feeling a bit better now as he stood up straighter.

"Look," Wren's voice got an edge to it as she pointed her finger at the swordsman, "You're hurt, and if you don't want to be vomiting up blood I suggest you lay back down and let me sit next to you."

"I don't need you to feel better damn it!"

"You really didn't notice?" Wren's voice was obviously sarcastic, which was beginning to piss Zoro off even more, "When you walked over here you suddenly felt pain again, but when I came over here you felt better. It's what I can do. I can make people feel better and heal faster if I'm around them," this was the first 'outsider' Wren had ever told this too, and she expected Zoro to be amazed. She figured he would apologize, and say how grateful he was for her to have spent so much time sitting next to him. He would politely go back, lie down, and allow her to help him.

"Bullshit."

"What?" that was not what Wren expected.

"You heard me," Zoro grumbled, "Bullshit. I don't need you around to help me, so get the hell away already."

Zoro thought the girl would maybe say something else back, or just look either angry or hurt and storm off in a rage. Not like he really cared anyway, but instead he saw her clench her jaw and cross her arms over her chest, "You wanna play that game huh?" she asked in a low tone of voice, "Fine, good luck, hope you don't die," she said as she turned on her heels and walked out of the door.

"Crazy bitch," Zoro mumbled once she had left, "Like I need-" it only took a few seconds after the girl left before he was overcome with the pain of the infection again. It took all his strength to get back to the bed and lay down. _I don't need her_, he thought as he tried his best to just ignore the pain and fall back asleep.

* * *

"Why do you have to act so impulsively all the time Luffy?" Nami asked as they walked through the streets of the small town, heading back to Peregrine's house. The fog had lifted, revealing a beautiful blue sky speckled with white cloud.

"I was hungry," the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates explained.

"Yeah we figured that out when we found you at a restaurant," Usopp muttered, thankful that it didn't take them very long to find their captain, but not enjoying all the weird looks he was getting. Sanji on the other hand was hamming it up. The guy had been trying to talk to every pretty girl the whole time they were out looking for Luffy, and lucky for Sanji the town was full of women.

"So why are there so many girls here?" Luffy's question was dumb for the rest of them, considering they hadn't run off to get food and had actually listened to what Peregrine was saying.

"Because…well Peregrine never actually explained _why_ it's all women here," Nami turned to look at Peregrine, who was trying his best to act as normal as possible, but it was obvious that the whole lot of them were getting stared at.

"It's the way it's been for a while now, that is all you need to know," he curtly replied, keeping his gaze forward, grateful to see that they were almost back to his house.

"Oh this place really is magnificent!" Sanji was over the moon with happiness as he walked backwards, keeping his eyes out for anymore pretty girls, "It's a shame these women have never enjoyed the company of a man before, their poor hearts must just be aching for romance!"

"Don't even think about it," Peregrine snapped, causing Sanji to turn his head to look at the older man, "These women want nothing to do with you, I can promise you that, so save your breath and stop trying to seduce them."

"Well someone is jealous that he isn't the only man on the island anymore," Sanji muttered as he turned around to face the same direction as the others.

"We're very sorry to have caused you such trouble," Usopp apologized as they neared the house.

"Trouble? Did my crew cause you trouble Mr.?" Luffy inquired as he got glares from the rest of his crew.

"No idiot you did! No one was supposed to know we were here until you decided to run out for a snack!" Nami promptly hit Luffy on top of his head, but as she knew it did nothing to hurt him.

"Oh. Well my apologies Mr," Luffy stated, "But do you think we can make breakfast soon, I'm starving."

"You just ate!" Sanji, Nami, and Usopp yelled in unison.

"No," Luffy dragged out the 'o', "Like Nami said, it was just a snack."

"You're hopeless," Sanji wanted to warn Peregrine that he better stock of up on groceries if he planned on feeding them for the next day, but he figured he could just wait and let Peregrine find out for himself.

"Hey Dad!" Everyone had been busy talking that they hadn't noticed Wren sitting on the grass outside the house, reading a book, "So I take it we aren't keeping them a secret anymore?"

"Wren! What are you doing out here! You should be with the swordsman!" Peregrine was shocked that his daughter would just leave the injured man by himself.

"He was being an ass," Wren said as she stood up, holding her book in her hands.

"Not surprising, that bastard swordsman doesn't know how to treat a woman," Sanji was quick to grab Wren's free hand and kiss it gently, "My apologizes. I will personally make sure that he doesn't treat you that way again."

"Oh uh…" Wren had no idea what to do, here was this guy, around her age who was holding and kissing her hand. She didn't know if she should be embarrassed or smack the blond pirate's face. Needless to say Wren was starting to figure out that not all guys acted the same, and that her father almost seemed to be an exception with his kind, loving, attitude.

"I would hate to kill a visitor, especially when we don't get them very often, so please," a hard, cold hand clenched onto Sanji's shoulder, "Get away from my daughter," Peregrine looked serious, and Sanji knew it was best to not mess with an angry father, so he complied and calmly took a step away from the lovely Wren.

"How long has Zoro been alone?" once Sanji was away from his daughter Peregrine could figure out what was going on here.

"Eh, maybe ten minutes," the brunette shrugged as her father walked past her with a sigh, "I'm sure he's fine," she rolled her eyes as she began walking with the others, all following her father.

"So are we really the first guys you have ever met?" Usopp asked Wren as they walked through the hallways of the large home that belonged to Peregrine.

"Besides my Dad?" she turned to look at the long nosed man who nodded his head 'yes', "Yup!" she popped the 'p' as a grin came to her face, and she could see Sanji swooning from the corner of her eye.

"Woah really?" now Luffy was interested, "So Zoro was the first guy besides your old man that you've _ever _seen?"

"Well I saw all of you at the same time I saw him, but yeah he is the only other man I've spent a significant amount of time around."

"And for that we apologize," Nami sighed, knowing that Zoro probably wasn't happy to be left with some random girl and probably took out this anger on Wren.

"I promise I will do everything in my power to change your view on men. I know that mossy haired jerk may have stained it for you, but you'll see- we aren't all bad," Sanji would have gone up to Wren to say this, but Nami stopped him, which then ensued in him asking if she was jealous, but she just ignored that question.

"I must say you all seem rather nice for pirates," Wren complimented them, earning her a grin from Luffy, "But what brings you to the Grand Line?"

"I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" Luffy nearly shouted, and the overjoyed and full of hope expression on his face made Wren giggle.

"Well then I'm happy that one of the first men I've met happens to be the guy who will one day be King of the Pirates."

Before anyone else could say anything they heard a horrible noise as Peregrine opened the door to where Zoro was. As they peeked in they saw Zoro sitting on the bed, folded over a tin bucket, violently throwing up. "Oh…hey guys," Zoro said weakly as he lifted his head, "I found this bucket in the closet," he was obviously becoming delusional, "I can't sleep," he pointed out as he held the bucket close to him, "I see you all have met," this he said with some venom in his voice as he noticed that strange girl standing in the doorway as well.

"Oh yeah Wren? She's nice," Luffy said with a grin, and now Zoro could put a name to the face that had him in this horrible mess.

"Have we learned a lesson Zoro?" Wren tsked as she moved into the room, already noticing Zoro's breathing becoming easier.

"Only that you're a creep," he spat, gaining more energy the closer she got to him.

"No!" Wren shouted, "I'm not a creep."

"Then why were you leaning over me like that earlier huh!"

"If you don't cool it I'm leaving again!"

"Good!"

"Does he seem better to you?" Usopp asked as they watched Zoro argue with Wren from the doorway.

"Yeah he does!" Luffy stated the obvious as he ran into the room, "Cool Zoro you stopped throwing up!" he said, stopping the argument between the brunette and the swordsman.

"That was rather a miracle recovery. You were sick as a dog just a minute ago," Nami said as they rest of them came into the room.

"It's no miracle," Peregrine said as he noticed the color come back into Zoro's face, "It's Wren."

"Huh?" Usopp didn't know exactly what Peregrine meant by that.

"It's why I left her in here with Zoro. She has this ability you see; actually all the women on this island have this ability. You probably haven't noticed, but if you stop for a moment you may realize how easily you are breathing, how clearly you are seeing things, and even how acute your hearing is," he paused for a moment as everyone realized that everything he was saying was true, "It's cause of Wren. And the closer she is to you, the better you feel. The reason Zoro stopped throwing up was because Wren entered the room, and if she were to sit next to him he would feel completely fine. As long as she is around Zoro he will continually feel better, allowing his body to heal faster than it would without her."

"So she's a….doctor?" Luffy asked, not quite understanding the whole thing.

"No," Peregrine paused as he looked over at his daughter who was standing near Zoro's bed, "She's a healer."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Thanks so much to Melissabear and the everchanging for adding this story to their alert system! You guys earn the favorite people of the day award! Also thanks to everyone who read this chapter, and as you can see this story is rated M for language. Zoro is kinda a potty mouth, but we love him. As always I would love to hear what you all have to say about this story, so please leave a review. Finally, on my profile there is a link to where I post banners/images for my stories. If you want to see the banner I made for this story head to my profile and you'll find the link. Thanks again! :)


	3. The Offer and the Sisters

**CHAPTER 3: The Offer and the Sisters**

* * *

"_No," Peregrine paused as he looked over at his daughter who was standing near Zoro's bed, "She's a healer."_

"So not a doctor?" Luffy inquired as he switched his gaze from Wren to Peregrine.

"Not a doctor," Peregrine said slowly, hoping the one in the straw-hat would comprehend.

"A healer?"

"Yes. A healer."

Luffy took a moment as he kept his eyes locked on Wren before finally coming to a conclusion, "That's so cool! We don't have one of those yet! You should join our crew!"

"What!" both Wren and Zoro exclaimed at the same time as they looked at Luffy with disbelief.

"C'mon, it'd be fun! Plus having a healer on our crew would be so _cool_! Can you do any other tricks healer girl?"

"She doesn't do tricks it's-"

"Actually yeah I can," Wren cut off Peregrine, who was extraordinarily shocked that his daughter had just been asked to become a pirate.

"Show us! Show us! Pretty please show us!" Luffy was nearly begging as he jumped up and down hoping that Wren would show them what else she could do.

"Well you can't really see it, it's more of a feel thing, and-"

"Don't care! Just do it!" Luffy interrupted Wren, not able to contain his excitement.

"I need someone to do it on though," Wren looked around the room, knowing that no one would volunteer if they knew what would happen to them.

"Do it to Zoro!"

"What!" Zoro had been trying his best to just ignore this whole thing, until he heard his idiot captain recommend him to be the guinea pig.

"Yeah yeah he's tough, he'll be fine!" Luffy urged.

"Fine," Wren smirked, seeing this as payback for how Zoro insisted on treating her, "Okay, but I need to be close to the person so," she paused as she looked over at Zoro, who she knew wasn't going to like this.

She figured as long as she did it quickly he wouldn't have time to complain. With one step and a slight hop Wren managed to get onto the bed and straddle Zoro. "What the-" was all Zoro managed to get out before she placed her hands on either side of his face and touched her forehead to his. The whole thing took less than a minute as she got off of the swordsman and went to go stand by Luffy.

"What did you do?" Nami didn't see anything different about Zoro, except that maybe his face had turned a little red when Wren jumped on him.

"Just watch," Wren crossed her arms over her chest, noticing how Zoro's breathing was beginning to change, and then right before their eyes the swordsman passed out.

"He fainted!" Luffy pointed out with the least amount of concern for Zoro, "You did that!" he turned to look at Wren.

"I can make people feel better without even having to try, but if I focus my mind on a certain ailment and manage to get close enough to someone I can make them sick."

"Any kind of sickness?" Usopp was very curious as he thought about how cool it would be to have some kind of a disease star. Biological warfare, the thought almost had Usopp giggling with excitement.

"Yup. Anything I know at least. I just made Zoro faint, nothing big so he will be awake in a few seconds, but yeah that's what I can do," no one on the island found what Wren could do impressive, partly because everyone else could do it too, but now here she had this small group of people in awe over what she had been able to do since she was six years old.

"That's so cool! You have to join our crew now!" Luffy's mind was officially set. This healer girl was cool, unique, nice, and he like how he felt around her, so it was settled, no matter what anyone said he wanted Wren on his crew.

"What the hell just happened?" Zoro's hands and feet felt numb and tingled as his eyes slowly opened. His head was pounding and the last thing he remembered was that girl jumping on him. He expected someone to answer him, but instead he heard what sounded like a very angry voice.

"It's not _cool_," everyone had seemed to have forgotten that Peregrine was in the room, but with how serious he sounded he quickly gained everyone's attention.

"Yeah it is Mr. Peregrine! It's awesome!" Luffy still had stars in his eyes from how cool it was, and he didn't understand how Wren's own father didn't think seem to appreciate what his daughter could do.

"Damn it! No it's not!" Wren hadn't heard her father raise his voice in a very long time, and she couldn't deny that it scared her, "It's a curse damn it! None of the women on this island wanted that ability so don't you dare call it _cool_. My daughter is cursed, my whole family is, and I'm not about to allow you to just come in and take her away from me because you think she can perform tricks for your band of pirates!"

"But Dad-"

"No! I won't hear it! These pirates have already caused me enough trouble; I won't allow them to take you away with them! You know what would happen if you left, and I won't allow it! Now you stay here with the swordsmen, the rest of you need to get out and no more talk about Wren becoming a pirate! Now get out! Go back to the room I had you in earlier and stay there, and as soon as your log post resets you pirates need to get the hell off this island!" Peregrine's face was a deep red from all of the yelling he had done, and he was shaking with anger. Everyone was in shock as they looked at the furious older man, and without another word Nami grabbed Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji and led them out of the room.

"I won't lose you Wren, my heart just wouldn't be able to take it," Peregrine said softly as he exited the room and shut the door.

It was awkwardly quite in the room. Zoro just sat on the bed, looking up at Wren who seemed like she just might cry. He really hoped that she could keep it together though, he wasn't the comforting type and he figured telling her to 'suck it up' wouldn't help much. "Do you wanna go somewhere?" her voice was soft as she turned to look at Zoro.

He didn't know what this girl was up to, but he didn't really want to find out, "Not particularly," he growled as he placed his hands behind his head and lay back on the bed, closing his eyes. He heard Wren sigh and was waiting to hear her leave, but instead he heard his bed creak as she sat down. He opened one eye to see her sitting next to him, the side of her leg only about a centimeter away from his.

"You really need to learn about personal space," he hoped that this would be enough of a hint, but Wren didn't move at all, "Damn it are you just gonna sit there all-"

"Let's start over," her words were rushed as she repositioned herself so she could look at Zoro, "My name's Wren," she extended her hand out to him, a small smile on her face, "It's nice to meet you."

"Eh," was all Zoro said as he closed his eyes again, leaving Wren's hand there. _This girl is dense. Maybe if I just ignore her completely she will leave_. Unfortunately the ignoring her technique failed as soon as he felt his hand being forcefully pulled out from under his head. His eyes snapped open as he watched her place his hand in hers.

"And you're Roronoa Zoro right?" she asked as she shook his hand, that same dumb smile on her face.

"Holy hell you're annoying," Zoro grunted as he pulled his hand away, placing it underneath his head again.

"And you're rude," she quickly snapped back.

"Then leave."

"No," was her final answer as Zoro opened his eyes to see her determined face staring down at him, "Look I really don't want to sit in this room all day, so how about this. You either stay here and writhe in pain some more, or you can get up and come with me."

Zoro was speechless. It was an odd feeling as he was torn between anger and confusion. Where was that sweet girl that was trying to 'start over' with him? Well apparently if pushed enough she managed to form a backbone. "I have ten sisters," she randomly spewed, just making Zoro even more confused, "Patience is a necessity, so I'm not gonna let you push me away by just being a complete ass. But I'm also not just gonna let you bully me, so c'mon," finally she got off the bed, but she wasn't about to leave Zoro alone.

"Fine," Zoro muttered as he got out of the bed, furious that this girl had him in the palm of her hand.

"Here," as soon as Zoro was out of the bed he was hit in the face with his shirt.

"I don't think it's appropriate for you to be walking around my house half naked," Wren had her hands on her hips as she watched Zoro slip his shirt on. He didn't even respond to her, and it was obvious that she was on his nerves, but she didn't really know what to do. She had to admit that she wasn't very happy that the first guy she got to spend time with seemed to hate her.

"Get that dumb look off your face," Zoro spat as he grabbed his swords and headed towards the door, not even waiting for Wren.

"So I need to grab something from my room first," Wren said once she caught up to Zoro.

"Fine."

"Well we are going to the wrong way," she pointed out, and without another word Zoro just turned around and started walking the other way. She let out a long sigh before she began following him again, figuring that maybe if she just shut up for a while maybe he would be in a better mood later on.

"Stay out here," Wren ordered once they reached the door to her bedroom, but she saw the agitated look on Zoro's face and figured she better tack on another word to that, "Please," she smiled, but the swordsman had already turned his gaze away.

Wren thought that maybe she could just sneak in, grab her book, and leave, but unfortunately Stora saw her as soon as she entered the room. The blonde was now up and must have just gotten out of the shower. She was dressed for the day and currently sitting on her bed, brushing out here damp hair. "Where have you been?"

"Outside," Wren stated simply as she walked towards her desk, not bothering to make eye contact with her sister.

"Without your book?" Stora could tell that something was up, with the way Wren had tried to sneak in the room and how she seemed desperate to get out with minimal conversation.

"Bye Stora," was all the brunette said as she grabbed her book, paper, and a pen and scurried out of the room. She was happy to see Zoro still outside, but unfortunately she noticed that he seemed to be having trouble breathing and was clinging onto his side.

"Sorry," she whispered as she moved closer to him, "I shouldn't have gone so far away."

Zoro hated to admit it, but as soon as Wren came close to him it was like all the pain just went away. He tried not to show it right away though, and he wasn't about to acknowledge her apology either. Instead he just began walking, even though he had no idea where they were going and secretly hoped that she wouldn't let him get too far away or else he would be feeling queasy again. He only got a few steps ahead of her before she was sprinting to catch up, once she did she didn't say a word.

Zoro really really wished that the silence could have been comfortable, but it was extremely awkward. Wren kept stealing glances at him, her mouth opening a bit as if she was going to say something, but then she would snap it shut. She didn't tell him where they were going, and Zoro wasn't about to ask and give her the idea that it was okay to talk. He just wished she wasn't so damn _awkward_. Not only that, but he couldn't freakin just ignore her either. She seemed to not be able to walk in a straight line, and with how close she insisted on being she kept bumping into him. By the millionth time she bumped into him Zoro was ready to just push her away from him. _I hope Luffy and the others are having more fun than I am_, he thought as Wren once again bumped into his shoulder.

* * *

"I don't care. She's joining the crew."

"You're just dying to have Peregrine wring your neck aren't you?" Nami asked as she clinked her fork on the plate.

"Guys we should probably get going…if Peregrine finds out we are in here he won't be happy," Usopp hadn't even been that hungry, yet he was dragged along with the other as they hunted down the kitchen. They had almost been seen a few times, but luckily everyone seemed to be in their rooms instead of roaming the halls. The kitchen had been completely empty when they finally found it, and without asking for any permission Sanji raided the fridge and cooked up breakfast.

"You can't just _make_ someone join the crew Luffy," Sanji ignored the frightened Usopp, and instead was trying to knock some sense into his captain.

"Not to mention that her father doesn't want her to go," Nami knew that it really didn't seem to matter if Wren wanted to go or not because Peregrine had made it very clear that he wasn't going to let his daughter join a pirate crew.

"She's an adult she can do whatever she wants. And I want her to join my crew," Luffy wasn't getting it, but his crew figured he wouldn't. He had been extremely persistent in getting all of them to join his crew, and if he really wanted Wren on the Going Merry, well he wasn't about to just give up.

"But she's _cursed_," this word alone had struck fear into Usopp's heart, because nothing good ever came from a curse.

The room fell silent as everyone remembered what Peregrine had said. All the women on this island were cursed, and that included Wren. "But it doesn't seem that bad," Nami huffed as she pushed her plate away, "Her curse actually helped Zoro."

"Well I don't care," Luffy's words were muffled as he stuffed his mouth full of food; "She's joining. We are gonna have a healer on our crew! Man that just sounds so awesome!"

* * *

It took Zoro and Wren about ten minutes to fully hike up the outrageously tall hill that was behind Wren's home. He knew it would be an easy climb for him, but he didn't expect the girl to have such a simple time with it as well. She looked fit he supposed, as in she was slim and had some slight muscle definition to her arms and legs, but he was still shocked to see she wasn't even out of breath when they reached the top. Once they were on top of the grassy mound, Wren immediately plopped down and opened up her book. Zoro didn't sit down right away; instead he took the opportunity to look at the town they had stumbled across.

He couldn't deny that it was quaint. Zoro had thought that Wren's two story, twenty or so room home was large, but now he saw that this seemed to be the norm around here. Every house was white, and each had a perfectly manicured lawn. The only buildings that weren't white were the shops that sat in the center of the town. Everything circled around this shopping area, and Wren's house was the furthest inland with nothing beyond the large hill.

"Pretty huh?"

"I didn't come with you to hear you talk," Zoro thought about walking away and sitting somewhere else on the large hill, but as soon as he took a step away from the girl he felt his abdomen tighten and breathing shorten.

"So is this just your normal attitude?"

"I'm gonna take a nap," he wasn't about to get roped into a conversation with her, so instead he figured he could just fall asleep and forget she was even there. The grass was soft as he laid back on it, placing his hands behind his head and letting out a loud yawn. Yeah, sleeping would be much better than talking to her.

_Why doesn't he like me?_ Wren knew it was a dumb thought, and she shouldn't even worry about the rude swordsman, he'd be gone soon anyway, but still…she'd never been so instantly un-liked by anyone. Sure she wasn't everyone's favorite person, but no one had ever been so blatantly rude to her. And maybe if he was the millionth guy she had met in her life and he was rude to her she could just shrug it off, but this was the second guy _in her whole life_ she had ever met! Not to mention that Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji seemed to like her, so what was with Zoro?

The more Wren's mind wandered the less she could focus on her book, and eventually just gave it up all together. Her eyes immediately went to Zoro, whose eyes were closed as he lay in the grass. "Why don't you like me?"

The sun had been shining on Zoro's face; until a big ol' shadow completely covered his face- then he heard Wren's voice. He already figured what he would see when he opened his eyes, and sure enough there was Wren, hovering right over his face. "Wren," he said slowly, the first time he had actually said her name, "Listen to me very carefully," he was trying to stay calm as he watched her tilt her head to the side, still hovering over him, "I don't **ever** want you this close to me," this he said as threatening as possible, his voice low and almost sounding like a growl.

"You ignored my question again."

She didn't move. She didn't fucking move. People were _afraid_ of Zoro, and if he threatened someone they usually got the hint. But not this girl. This girl was still hovering over him, strangely close, and staring at him with those blue wide eyes of hers. "Leave me alone," he growled as he closed his eyes again, simply begging her to go away but instead he felt her hand lightly smack him on the forehead.

"What the hell was that for!" he was sitting up in no time, sending Wren staggering backwards. No the smack didn't hurt, not at all, but it as the principle of the whole thing.

"You were ignoring me," Wren knew that she probably wasn't helping her case by doing that, but at least now Zoro was up and hopefully willing to communicate with her. _I wonder if he ever smiles_, she thought as she looked at his angry expression, "Do you smile?"

"What the hell kind of a dumb question is that!" Zoro really wanted to know where she came up with half this stuff. Well one thing was for sure, she definitely wasn't shy.

"Nevermind," she sighed as she tightened her ponytail, "The more important question is 'why don't you like me'?"

"Ha you sure think highly of yourself."

"What does that mean?"

"You're not the only person I don't like idiot," Zoro watched as Wren scrunched up her nose at the insult he just hurled at her, but she stayed silent none the less, "Not only did I just meet you, but you're annoying to say the least."

"That fact that I want to talk to you is annoying?"

"Yes," Zoro answered bluntly, watching as the girl sighed yet again.

"I'm sorry if I'm annoying and creepy," Wren offered, trying to find some way to make the swordsman not so mad at her.

"I don't want you to apologize damn it," he muttered.

Wren stayed silent for a while, her eyes out towards her town and the ocean. Everything looked so peaceful, but at the same time it was nothing she hadn't seen a million times before. "I want to join your crew," she finally whispered, knowing that Zoro must have heard her, but just not said anything, "But I see why my Dad doesn't want me to," she turned to look at Zoro, hoping he would ask some sort of follow up question, and after staring at him for a bit, he finally took the bait.

"_Why_?" It was obviously sarcastic and he didn't really want an answer, but it was good enough for Wren.

"It's part of the curse. If the women stay on this island we are healthy, I mean I haven't been sick once in over a decade. But as soon as we leave, our immune system just can't handle it. We can get sick very easily, and many of the women who have left the island have died from diseases. It's rumored that the longer you're off the island, the better your immune system gets, but it's still risky."

"Well there you have it," Zoro said, surprising Wren that he actually responded, "If you get off the island you'll get better. Simple as that," he stated as he looked over at Wren, "What are you smiling for?"

"Nothing," she shook her head, as if trying to shake the grin off, "Just you make it sound so simple. It's nice. Everyone here swears that the curse will never be lifted and that we will just be stuck on this island until we all die, it really is a morbid way of thinking, but I don't see it that way. I think I can figure out a way to break the curse, and maybe it is simple, maybe you're right Zoro."

"Don't start getting any ideas. It's not like I want you to join the crew or anything," Zoro saw that smile that had spread onto Wren's face, and he knew what she must be thinking.

"Oh I know that," she rolled her eyes as she opened up her book again, "You can nap now," she said simply as she gave Zoro a small smile, one which he didn't return. Instead he just laid back down on the grass and figured that if she was going to shut up long enough for him to sleep then he better take advantage of it.

* * *

Wren had forgotten to bring a watch, but she figured that her and Zoro would go back down whenever he woke up from his nap. She figured maybe an hour; she didn't realize how long it had been until she completely managed to finish reading her book. The sun was already high over the sky, and Zoro was still completely passed out. Wren didn't want to wake him up though, because she was afraid he would be cranky, so she figured she could wait, how much longer could he really sleep anyway?

The brunette only last about half an hour though after she finished her book before her stomach began rumbling for lunch, plus she was getting bored. "Zoro," she said as she poked his arm, but he didn't sir, "Zoro wake up," she tried again, but it was not working. _I really don't want to creep him out again_, she thought as she bit her bottom lip. _Well he should be good by now_; she had been sitting next to Zoro for over five hours now, so he most likely would be okay without her by his side.

Wren made sure to move away slowly, watching for any sign that Zoro was in pain or discomfort. First she scooted a few feet away, but no change in the swordsman. Then she stood up and began walking backwards, ready to run towards him if she saw even a glimpse of pain on his face. "Hm," she said softly as the green haired man was still fast asleep even though she wasn't anywhere near him.

_He should be fine if I leave for a little bit_, she thought as her stomach grumbled again, _I can go get us lunch and be right back, he won't even know I left_. This guy had been sleeping for hours, and Wren was sure that if she waited for him to wake up to go eat she would probably starve. Wren felt a bit uneasy about just leaving him, but the other option was waking him up and being called a 'creep' again. _I'll be quick_, she finally thought as she began speed walking down the hill, clutching her book to her chest.

"Wren!"

The brunette had reached the base of the hill when she heard one of her sisters calling her name. There, standing in the backyard and picking some wild flowers was Pippit, the youngest of Wren's sister at the age of twelve. "Oh hey Pip," Wren didn't stop walking as she gave her youngest sister a smile.

"What's the rush?"

"Hey Raven!" Wren called as she noticed her thirteen year old sister walking out of the house carrying a vase.

"Pip?" Raven looked down the freckled, red head twelve year old, "Did Wren just walk down from the hill?"

"Yeah," Pippit responded as she continued picking flowers, "And she seemed in a hurry, she didn't even stop to talk to us."

"Rude," Raven huffed as she turned her eyes up to the hill, "She normally isn't away from the house for so long, I wonder what she's hiding."

"Why do you think she's hiding something? Raven?" The black haired thirteen year old had already begun walking towards the house, leaving the vase next to Pippit's feet.

"I'm gonna ask Stora," Raven called as she entered through the back door.

Wren was trying to avoid her family as much as possible, except there was one person she wanted to see- Lark. Lark was the second oldest in the family, at the age of twenty two, and ever since their mother died she had basically taken over many of the household responsibilities. Every meal was prepared by Lark, and she was also the one to yell at the girls to clean their rooms. Wren could smell the remnants of lunch, and she quickly and stealthily made her way to the kitchen. The first sign that something was up was when the door to the kitchen was closed, basically because it was never ever closed, but Wren was too hungry to think anything of it. "Lark why is the door closed," Wren called as she opened the door and she felt her jaw slacken a bit when she saw Luffy, Sanji, Nami, and Usopp all eating while Lark was cooking.

"Oh…who are these people! Ah, oh deary me!"

"Stop it Wren you're acting ridiculous," Lark didn't even turn around to look at her younger sister, "I already know that you know. Dad clued me in, or actually I found this one," the older brunette turned and pointed her cooking spoon at Luffy, "Trying to sneak food."

"I was hungry!" was all Luffy said as he shoveled food into his mouth.

"That's a lot of food," Wren pointed out the obvious as she saw how much Luffy was consuming, yet no one else seemed very shocked.

"Yeah we are going to need groceries soon," Lark sighed as she turned back around and continued cooking.

"Where's Zoro?"

"Don't worry Usopp," Wren noticed the concerned look at the long nosed one's face, probably worried she had left the swordsman again to vomit up blood, "He's asleep and perfectly fine, I just needed to come get food."

"So you don't have to be around him all the time now?" Nami knew that must have been a relief for the blue eyed girl, who must have had to put up with a lot of sass from Zoro.

"Yeah he's fine now, I mean I'm not sure if the infection is gone, but he doesn't need me around anymore," Wren replied as she peered over Lark's shoulder, wanting to see if whatever she was cooking was ready yet.

"And Lark, you can heal people too right?" Usopp was having a hard time attaching the word 'cursed' to these two girls, who looked no different from them and didn't act like cursed people.

"Yup, every woman on this island, so basically every person besides our Dad, who isn't happy with you," Lark turned her attention to Wren, who had been standing next to her and staring at the food.

"It's cause Wren is going to join our crew!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Oh really now?" Lark raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her younger sister, "You don't look like much of a pirate Wren."

"I didn't say I was joining the crew Luffy," Wren ignored her sister as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the straw-hat. She wanted to tell him that she was considering it, but figured she didn't want to get his hopes ups.

"Sure, whatever," Luffy completely dismissed her and continued eating.

"Wren it isn't going to be ready for a bit, so can you stop standing right next to me," Lark gently pushed her sister away, not sure why the eighteen year old had always insisted on standing so close to people.

"Do you need help Lark!" Sanji had been ideally smoking in the corner when suddenly opportunity presented itself and he was at Lark's side.

"Sure, make yourself useful," Lark tossed a spoon to Sanji, who readily caught it and began working, "You too," the older sister looked towards Wren, "Go take a shower, you reek."

"But-"

"No arguing, it will be ready soon I promise, but you standing here won't help it along."

"Fine," Wren knew it was pointless to argue with Lark, "But I need to hurry up, I don't want to leave Zoro alone for too long in case he wakes up"

"Yeah yeah fine," Lark muttered as Wren began leaving, "And don't act all weird around the others okay? They don't know yet, and considering Dad had no control over some of the town members finding out he kinda doesn't want the same thing to happen with his daughters."

"You act like I can't keep a secret," Wren mumbled as she left the kitchen to go take a shower.

"Five bucks Wren will blow the secret," Lark said as soon as her sister was gone.

"She seems trustworthy," Usopp argued, causing Lark to snort a laugh.

"Yeah she is, but she has a super obvious tell. Whenever she is hiding something she completely ignores you, or at least tries to avoid you like the plague. Wren is normally pretty social, so when she starts doing that you know she is up to something."

"That's good to know since she will be on our crew."

"Luffy, I don't think Lark wants to talk about that," Sanji said as he noticed the expression on Lark's face change.

"Take care of her okay," Lark said softly as she turned to look at the visitors in her kitchen, "If she decides to go you need to promise to take care of her."

"We may be pirates, but we take care of each other. We would never let anything happen to Wren," Sanji tried to console the woman, but it didn't do much to quell Lark's fears.

"Wren's a dork," Lark let out a small laugh, "But she's my closest sister, and if anything happened to her I don't know what I would do."

"Don't worry Lark," Nami said nonchalantly, "If Wren comes along with us she will be fine."

"I don't know about 'fine'," Lark mumbled as she turned back to continue cooking, "But if anything happened to her I would have to kill you all."

"Uh what was that?" Usopp leaned forward, not sure he had heard Lark correctly, but it sounded like she said she would kill them.

"Oh nothing!" Lark said happily as she turned and gave them all a smile.

* * *

Wren managed to avoid everyone rather easily, and when she did run into one of her sisters she just rushed past them. She didn't think she was acting weird, but she did need to hurry. Stora hadn't been in the room when Wren got there, which was good because it was one less person to have to talk to. Stora and Wren shared a bathroom which was connected to their room, and Wren wanted to make sure she was gone before Stora came back.

She had managed to take a shower, dry her hair, and get dressed in khaki shorts and a dark green t-shirt in record time, but she did feel oddly frantic as she put her shoes on and began heading back towards the kitchen. Nami, Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji were no longer in there when she arrived, and Lark explained that they had gone back into the room they were ordered to stay in until tomorrow. Wren didn't stay in the kitchen very long, considering Lark had packed both her and Zoro a lunch, making it easy for Wren to just run in, grab the two lunches and began nearly running back towards the hill.

Eventually though she slowed down, figuring that it would just draw more attention from her family if they saw her sprinting up the hill. Wren wasn't sure why she felt so nervous as she was walking up the hill, maybe because she was afraid that Zoro had woken up and walked off somewhere. That thought alone made Wren feel a bit sick, because if Zoro wandered into town her Dad would not be happy. But Wren didn't think that would happen, and she thought that was the worst possible thing that could happen.

She thought wrong.

"He's cute."

"He's obviously too old for you Phoenix."

"He looks really different from Dad."

"Are we sure it's a guy? What if it's an alien?"

"Do you think before you talk Linnet? He isn't an alien."

"Well you don't know that Stora!"

"Yes I do."

Wren felt all the blood drain from her face as she saw Stora, Ani, Phoenix, Linnet, and Raven all hovering over a still sleeping Zoro. She couldn't even bring herself to say anything as she just stood there in complete shock, wanting to tell her sisters to shut up before they woke Zoro up, but it was too late.

Zoro had no idea what that annoying noise was, but it sound like high pitched squawking. He knew that Wren alone couldn't be making this much noise, but then what the hell was it? Soon though the squawking started sounding like words and he heard a female voice go 'shhhh!' followed by another female voice whisper 'He's waking up.'

There, standing over Zoro were five girls. Five girls staring at him like some sort of science experiment, and Zoro just knew who he could blame for this. Before he even said anything he turned his head, all of the girl's following his gaze, and sure enough there was Wren, standing there with two paper bags looking like she just might faint.

"Uh Zoro," she mumbled as a bead of sweat fell from her forehead, "These are some of my sisters. Sisters. This is Mr. Roronoa Zoro."

* * *

**Author's Note: **I feel like this story is moving kind of slow, but it's because I want the story to have a solid base and not just be like Wren shows up and suddenly they are all best friends. If this story ever does get too stagnant for you though please just let me know and I can see what I can do. Now time for the favorite people of the day award: big thanks to Little Ai, icegoddess52, MrsRenner, thelonliestpineapple, and DieEierVonSatanSatanBalls for favoriting/adding this story to your alert system. And a huge, and I mean huge thank you to skipbeataddict who gave this story it's first ever review! You get to be favorite person of the week, woooo!

Thanks so much to everyone and please make sure to leave a review :)


	4. The Meeting and the Theory

**CHAPTER 4: The Meeting and the Theory**

* * *

Awful. This was just awful. Wren was pretty sure that this would go down as the most embarrassing, awkward, awful moment in her life. Was she being over dramatic? Probably, but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was run out of the room, but no, here she was, stuck in the living room with all ten of her sisters and a band of pirates, one of whom they simply _insisted _on calling her 'boyfriend'.

"It's so unfair!"

"Of course Wren gets to meet guys before any of us, huh Wren?"

"And she got to be alone with a guy too!"

"What were you doing up there Wren?"

"Probably making out with her _boyfriend_."

"Stop it, you all sound like a bunch of hormonal teenagers," Lark snapped at her younger sisters who were relentlessly teasing Wren. Unfortunately it didn't do much to relieve the awkwardness, because those who weren't teasing Wren were instead staring intently at Sanji, Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro.

"Which one do you like Mallard?"

"I like the blond one."

"No you can't! I like the blond one!"

"He's too young for you anyway Mavis!"

"Only by a year or two! And if he's too young for me then he's too young for you cause we are twins doofus!"

"Well I like the one with the green hair."

"We know Pheonix! You've only told us a million times."

"I've very sorry about all this," in all of the chaos there came a calm, low, and almost monotone voice, "You can understand why they are all so excited can't you?"

"Yeah I guess, but they keep looking at the guys like they are pieces of meat," Nami couldn't believe what she was seeing, never in her life had seen women look at a guy like these girls were, and then were was Wren who was sitting in between Luffy and Zoro and was as red as a tomato, "Why are you so calm?" the red head turned to look at the woman sitting next to her. She was obviously older than all of the screeching younger girls, but she still held this youthful appearance in her porcelain face. Her hair was a light blonde, so light that it could almost come off as white in the sun, and her eyes were a navy color.

"Because I know that these men are just people. They are nothing special, just people," the woman almost sounded sad as she said this, as if she wished she could be as excited as her sisters, but yet she seemed to know some hidden truth, "My name is Dove by the way," she turned to meet Nami's gaze, "I know a woman should never tell her age," she let out a small laugh, "But I am twenty four and the oldest sister."

"I'm Nami," she had expected to shake Dove's hand, but the woman had simply sat there with her hands in her lap and gave her a slight nod instead, "So, these are all your sisters?" Nami's eyes danced around the room, unable to believe the amount of female presence. They were sitting in a large circle on wooden chairs that seemed to have been brought into this room from all over the house. There was only one empty chair, which she assumed was for Peregrine, who hadn't arrived yet. Sixteen people were in the room, and out of those sixteen only four were men.

"Yes, I suppose I should begin the introductions," in one swift motion Dove was standing up and moving towards the center of the circle. Once she had risen all voices had softened and eyes turned up to the beautiful, oldest sister.

As Wren watched her older sister walk into the center of the circle she thought she would be relieved, but instead she just felt her stomach twist even more. Yes, dealing with the taunting and chattering of her sisters was difficult, but that was easy compared to what was about to happen.

"Good afternoon everyone," Dove was oddly cordial, considering she was related to almost all the people in the room, "As you can see we have visitors, and before father arrived I thought it would be polite to introduce everyone. To reduce the noise I shall take it upon myself to introduce you strangers to my family, starting with myself. I am the oldest sister and my name is Dove," the room was eerily silent, the only noise was Dove's soft voice and footsteps as she began walking around the circle.

"We shall go in order, oldest to youngest," she began as she pointed to Lark, whom the pirate crew had already met, "This is Lark, she is twenty two years old."

"Do we really have to give them our ages," Lark muttered as she met the gaze of the guests.

"This is Mallard," Dove continued as she pointed at a girl with short black hair that hit right below her chin and green eyes, "And that is Mavis, they are twins and are twenty one years old," Dove pointed across the circle to another woman who looked identical to Mallard except Mavis had curly hair that reached her waist.

"Next is Stora, she is nineteen years old," Dove merely shifted her point to the left to the blonde who had been seated right next to Mavis, "Then there is Wren who is eighteen, but you all know her," the way everyone's eyes landed on Wren just made her face light up even more, and she could hear a light scoff coming from Zoro, who probably thought she was being ridiculous with her strawberry red face.

"Then there is Linnet, she is seventeen."

"I still do not believe that you are from this planet," said the seventeen year old with dark, fiery red hair had been staring at the guys this entire time, her green, curious eyes trying to figure these strangers out.

"She is rather superstitious," Dove said calmly as she then pointed at a girl with shoulder length dirty blonde hair, "That is Ani, she is sixteen years old, and next to her is Phoenix who is fourteen," the crew looked away from Ani and met with one of the creepiest smiles they had ever seen. The dark brown haired girl with hazel eyes was staring intently at Zoro, and even went as far as to give him a small wave, all of which creeped him out.

"Then there is Raven who is thirteen," the crew happily looked away from the odd, creepy girl and towards the black haired girl who simply shouted 'mischievous' and 'mystery'. Her eyes were such a dark brown that they looked black, and her hair was stick straight and went past her waist with bangs cutting across her forehead.

"And finally, the youngest of us all, there is Pipit, but we all call her Pip and she is twelve," the youngest sister did not look her age, in fact with her round face, freckles, wide brown eyes, and short bright red hair she looked very childish and younger than twelve.

"This meeting has been called because it has become known to the members of this household that we have guests, who I will allow to introduce themselves now," Dove let her eyes wander over to the pirates, who seemed uncomfortable as they introduced themselves.

"Uh I'm Nami," the only female in the group said, but she noticed that no one except Wren, Lark, and Dove seemed to be paying any attention to her, instead they all wanted to know the names of the men.

"My name is Usopp," Wren was actually surprised at how confident Usopp seemed as he pointed at himself and puffed his chest out, "Brave warrior of the sea!" at this she heard Zoro let out another scoff as he slouched down in his seat.

"Hello Usopp!" The Grand Line had its share of creepy things, but the sound of eight girls harmonizing their 'hello' was one of the creepiest things these pirates had yet to experience.

"Well," Sanji noticed that as soon as they were done saying 'hello' to Usopp, the girls all looked at him, "My name is Sanji, I'm the crew's cook," now Sanji was a fan of women, no doubt, but he was extremely uncomfortable as he saw some of the girls nearly drooling as they looked at him.

"Hello Sanji!" after the odd 'hello' it became quiet, as they waited for either the straw hat or the swordsman to introduce themselves.

"Tell them who you are," Nami harshly whispered once it had been silent for a few moments, and she was afraid that the girls would become angry if they were forced to wait too long.

"Oh yeah!" Luffy snapped, as if his mind had been somewhere else and he was just now joining everyone, "I'm Luffy! I'm the captain of this pirate crew!"

"Hello Luffy!" the straw-hat didn't seem to be as creeped out as everyone, instead he just gave them all a wide smile.

"And _you_ are?" Phoenix knew very well who Zoro was, she had been introduced to him up on the hill, but she was simply dying to hear him speak.

Zoro completely ignored the enamored girl, in fact he had his head back and his eyes closed to the whole room, and things were becoming tense. Wren noticed how everyone was staring at the swordsman, and then Wren caught Nami's gaze. Nami looked tense and kept switching her gaze between Wren and Zoro. It didn't take long for Wren to catch on, and as sneakily as she could with everyone watching she nudged Zoro in the side with her elbow. All she got though was a low growl as if saying 'leave me alone, I'm not participating in this freak show'.

"Well this is Zoro," Wren eventually said, her voice squeaking out of her as she looked at her sisters.

"Can your boyfriend not speak or what?" Of course it would be Stora who would start _that_ up again, and Wren couldn't help but send a bone chilling glare at her sister. She knew that Stora was probably still mad about this morning, but honestly, did she have to remind everyone of Zoro's unwanted nickname?

"Can you blame him? Who would want to talk to a bunch of crazy girls like you," Lark was quick to stand up for her sister, but soon the relentless chatter broke out again.

"I'm _so_ sorry about this," Wren muttered as she turned to look at Zoro, whose head was bent back, and eyes were still closed, "They really just don't know when to shut up," this she said more to herself, but she knew Zoro heard her.

"Stop being so embarrassed," he said, not even looking at Wren, but surprising her none the less since she assumed he would just ignore her.

"I'm not!" she quickly replied as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her seat.

"_Yeah_ that's why you're whole face is red," Zoro said as he looked at Wren out of the corner of his eyes, noticing just how uncomfortable and embarrassed she seemed to be, "Just ignore them," he finally sighed as he closed his eyes yet again, wondering if maybe he could take a nap with all this noise.

"Your sisters are funny," Wren felt someone nudge her side, and looked to see Luffy being completely entertained by the squawking females.

"I don't know if _funny_ is the right word for it," Yes Wren loved her sisters, each and every one of them, but at times they could be a bit much, especially now.

"No! They're awesome!" Luffy couldn't contain his laughter as he watched all the girls bickering, "But I wouldn't want them on my pirate crew," he stated as he caught his breathe and looked over to Wren, "Cause we already have a healer on our crew!"

"WHAT!"

No one had been listening this whole time. They hadn't been paying attention to what anyone else was saying. But they heard this. They all heard this, and once again all the attention snapped back onto Wren. "You guys didn't know?" Luffy met the eyes of all of the females, "Wren's joining our crew!" his declaration met with another loud 'what!', and in fact it looked like some of the girls were about to cry.

"But…you can't leave," Pippit said slowly as she looked at Wren and began wondering what life would be like if she left.

"Not only that, but you'd get really sick," Mavis pointed out, wondering what her sister was thinking.

"Guys calm down," Wren breathed as she ran her fingers through her hair, "I…" Wren didn't know what to say. Yes she was thinking about it, but she hadn't decided yet, but if she said that Luffy would automatically assume she was leaving, "Well I'm…"

"No one is going anywhere."

Wren had been so busy trying to think up some sort of excuse that she didn't even hear her father enter the room, but of course he had to come in when they were talking about her possibly leaving the island. Her first thought when she heard her father's voice was that he would be angry, but when looking at his face he looked almost too tired to be mad. The room quieted down as he took his seat amongst his family and the strangers. Wren noticed how Zoro had opened his eyes and was now looking at the patriarch, but still didn't seem very interested in what was going on.

"I did not want all of you girls to find out about our visitors," Peregrine began, much calmer than the last time the straw hats had seen him, "But as fate has it you did. I wanted to have this meeting to tell you all that you are not to talk to the townsfolk about this. Many have already seen them, but still…I do not want to have to explain anything to them."

"Then explain it to us," Ani said softly as she averted her gaze, "Why did you let them stay here?"

"One of them was injured, and I couldn't turn them away. You girls have been afflicted for a very long time, but this morning I made the choice to use the affliction to help someone," Peregrine was trying to keep names out of the story, but everyone knew who he was talking about.

"So why did Wren get to know?" Raven was obviously bitter at the fact that one of them was informed right away, yet the rest were never even supposed to know they had visitors.

"I didn't want her to, it's not like I intentionally chose her to know about this over the rest of you. She just happened to be there when they arrived."

"But she got to help Zoro, why couldn't one of us do it?" Phoenix crossed her arms over her chest as she sat back in her chair.

"I bet they could have asked one of us to join their crew if we had helped instead of Wren."

"Any of us could have helped Zoro, but you let Wren do it and set her up to be our visitors' favorite."

"It's just not fair, Wren's not any better than any of us, so why did she get to be alone with one of them?"

"Wren couldn't even keep it a secret either! She was probably the worst one to let know about this."

"She's just so dumb."

"She's not even special, I don't know why they would want her over any of us."

"Stop it!"

The screaming male voice startled Wren so much that her body shook with the sudden fear. She had been trying to block out everything her sisters were saying, trying to just breathe and focus on something else, when suddenly someone yelled. It took her a moment to figure out what was happening, but as she looked to her side she saw Luffy, standing up with his hands balled up into fists.

"All of you just stop it already! I wouldn't want any of you on my crew, even if you can heal people! Wren is special! And that's why I wanted her on my crew! Even if one of you had helped Zoro I wouldn't have asked you to join, I would have still asked Wren, so all of you stop making her feel bad!"

The room fell silent. No one dared to speak, in fact no one even knew what they would say, even Peregrine was speechless. Here was this boy, who had just met his daughter, and he was now sticking up for her? He didn't understand it. They were pirates, they wanted to take his daughter away from him, but he still felt grateful towards the straw hat.

"C'mon," Wren had just been staring up at Luffy when she felt her hand being grabbed and she was pulled up from her chair. Zoro didn't even look at her, but his grip was tight on her hand as he led her towards the door.

"You guys really should be ashamed," Wren heard Usopp say, and turned to see him, Sanji, and Nami stand up from their seats, "You shouldn't say such mean things to your sister."

"Thank you for letting us stay here," Sanji bowed slightly as he turned to Peregrine, "We won't get in your way anymore."

"We'll leave first thing in the morning, when the log post resets," Nami explained, as she followed her crew out of the door, Luffy walking behind her.

The rest of his crew had left, but before Luffy exited the room he turned to face them, "Thank you Mister for helping us today," he said to Peregrine, who was still stunned speechless, "And you," he said as he looked around the room at the girls, "Meanies," he said lowly, "Except you!" he pointed at Lark, "And you and you!" he then pointed to Dove and Pippit, who had also not said anything mean about Wren, "And maybe a few others, but for the most part you were all mean," and with that he left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

He obviously didn't know where he was going, in fact he was walking so quickly that they had left the others behind, but Wren's mind was so busy trying to process what just happened that she couldn't even speak. They stood up for her. These strangers, these people that she just met, they stood up for her. "Zoro," she finally managed to squeak out, "Where are we going?"

There were probably a million other things she could say, things that would have been much better and could have expressed her gratitude to the swordsman for getting her out of there. But none of those eloquent things managed to come out of her mouth, and as soon as she spoke Zoro stopped walking. "Sorry," she muttered as she ran into him, pulling her hand out of his as she backed away, "I, uh, well thank you for-"

"Don't thank me," Zoro barked as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I wanted to leave, but in order to not be in pain I had to drag you with me, so that's what I did. I didn't do it for you."

"Oh," Wren breathed as she looked down, realizing that he didn't know that she didn't have to be around him anymore, "You're healed."

"Huh?"

"You have been, ever since we were up on the hill. You don't have to be around me anymore, you could have just left me in there." Yeah, Wren felt pretty sucky right about now. She should have known better to expect an act of friendship from a guy who had merely been tolerating her all day.

"Hey."

_So what if Zoro didn't actually do it to be nice, at least Luffy stood up for me_, Wren thought as she tried to make herself feel better. _And all of them left the room, meaning they didn't want to have to deal with my sisters either._

"Hey. Don't tell me you're gonna start crying."

_I understand why they are jealous, but jeez they didn't have to be so rude. Honestly if they want to spend time with these guys then they can, well unless Dad won't let them. Which he probably won't because he doesn't want the guys to get mauled._

"Damn it I'm talking to you!"

"Huh?" Wren had completely blocked out everything around her, becoming consumed with her thoughts, that is until she heard an angry Zoro.

"Never mind," Zoro mumbled, not sure why he even tried to talk to this girl, "Where did the others go?"

"I'm joining your crew."

"Why do you have to be so random!" Honestly, Zoro wondered why she blurted out stuff the way she did.

"Did you hear me?" Wren asked as she looked up at the man, "I said I'm joining your crew."

"_Wonderful_," Sarcasm, thick sarcasm.

"I know huh?" Comeback sarcasm, which Wren could tell wasn't taken very well by Zoro, "You can't tell Luffy or the others though."

"Why?"

"Because I need to tell my Dad and sisters first, so promise me you won't tell them," Wren was considering sticking her pinky out to Zoro and making him pinky promise, but she figured that would be pushing it.

"Fine."

That was good enough for Wren, plus it didn't seem like Zoro was a big talker anyway, so her secret should be safe with him. _Wait…I need to ask Luffy something though before I decide to join._ "Maybe I won't join your crew."

"I'm done talking to you," Zoro said as he began walking away from the girl.

"I need to ask Luffy something," she said as she caught up to Zoro, but he didn't say anything signaling that he really was done talking to her for the time being. Wren had wanted to continue talking, she had questions to ask Zoro, but she was learning very quickly that if she should try not to bug him too much.

So instead of talking Wren decided to just lead Zoro to the room where the others were, and she was relieved to see that they were all there- just like they should be, and they looked bored. "Wren!" Usopp was the first to notice the brunette, and soon everyone else was looking towards the door, and Nami even stood up and began moving towards her.

"You okay?" Nami asked once she reached Wren, noticing how Zoro was already making his way towards an empty seat.

"Yeah," Wren was already over what had happened earlier, mainly because growing up with so many sisters taught her to forgive quickly and move on. She wouldn't be able to count the number of times one of her sisters offended her or made her cry, but she learned very quickly that there was no use sitting around crying over something. So instead Wren would move on, and the next time she saw her sisters she was sure they would apologize and things would be fine.

"That's great," the red haired smiled as she placed her hand on Wren's shoulder and turned to face the men in the room, "And I think _someone_ owes Wren a 'thank you'."

"Thanks Wren!" Luffy quickly shouted, a silly grin on his face.

Nami couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Not you," she sighed as she turned her gaze to Zoro, who was lying down on the floor, a pillow beneath his head, "Hey Zoro! Don't you think you should thank Wren for putting up with you all day!" Instead of apology all the girls got in response was a snore, signaling that Zoro was already out for a nap, "Ugh, he's so frustrating!"

"No don't worry about it," the day had already been tense enough and the last thing Wren wanted was to start up an argument between Nami and Zoro, "Really, I didn't expect a 'thank you' from him anyway."

"Well he's lucky you're so nice, but on behalf of all of us- thanks."

"You're welcome, but actually I need to thank all of you, especially you Luffy," the captain had busied himself with playing cards with Sanji and Usopp when he heard Wren say his name, "Thank you for sticking up for me, you didn't need to do that-"

"Yes I did. They were being mean so I told them to stop," to Luffy it was so simple. Why wouldn't he stick up for Wren? "You're part of the crew now and I don't let anyone put down one of my friends."

While everyone else (except Zoro, who was pleasantly sleeping) was scolding Luffy about simply assuming Wren would join the crew, the brunette felt a smile come to her face. Yeah she had friends, and she knew she had a way to go before actually becoming friends with these people, but Wren truly _wanted_ to be their friend. She wanted to get to know them, she wanted to be around them, she wanted to be a pirate.

"If I go with you I need to let you know something and ask if it would be okay," everyone had been bickering until Wren's voice caught their attention, "Uh okay well where to start."

"Is this going to be a story?" Luffy asked with wide eyes.

"Uh, kind of?"

"Zoro wake up! Wren's telling us a story!" the man hadn't been asleep long, but it only took one hit on the stomach from Luffy for Zoro to angrily awaken.

"What the-"

"Shhh, it's story time," Luffy interrupted Zoro as he looked to Wren again.

"Oh okay then," Wren said as she noticed everyone looking at her and waiting for her to speak, "Well as you all know all the women on this island are cursed, but it hasn't always been that way. Roughly twelve years ago the curse was placed on us, I don't remember much about when it happened because I was so young, but I do remember what it did to this island," Wren stopped for a moment as an image of her mother flashed in her mind.

"Anyway, long story short I have this theory. Curses. What are they really?" at this point Wren began walking around the room as she was about to get all philosophical and such, "I do not know entirely why the curse was placed on us, or why it was only placed on the women, it's part of the curse you see. Anyone who does know can't speak of it, literally, their throat closes up, this part even effects my Dad. But I'm piecing it together, and I figure if someone has the power to place a curse then-"

"Someone has the power to break it," Sanji finished her sentence as he followed her actually very simple logic.

"Exactly!" Wren beamed, "I've been researching how to break the curse for years, it'd make you sick to see all the binders full of research notes I have, but this island only has so much information for me. We can't be the _only_ ones in the whole world to have had a curse placed on them, and I just know that there are more clues for me out there."

"So if you join the crew you want to be able to do your research?" Usopp questioned as he watched Wren pace back and forth in front of them.

"I promise I will be useful, I know you want me on the crew to be your healer, and I will do that, but I can't just abandon my research. I want to be able to use other island's resources, to see what other people know about curses, and to continue putting the pieces of how this curse was placed upon us together. And when I do figure out how to break the curse, I want to be able to come back home."

Wren thought that Luffy would need time to think this over. She didn't know a whole lot about pirates, but she had always assumed that the crew solely served their captain. They abandoned their ambitions in order to further the crew, but Wren couldn't do that and she didn't know if Luffy would be able to accept that. "Yeah that's fine."

"Huh?" Wren had heard Luffy; she just didn't expect his response to come so quickly or for him to actually be okay with everything.

"We aren't your normal pirate crew," Sanji said as he placed a cigarette in his mouth.

"We all have things we want to accomplish, so it's perfectly fine that you want to use your time on the crew to try to figure out how to break the curse," Nami shrugged, noticing how shocked Wren seemed to be.

"Oh," Wren said slowly as she let her eyes scan over each of the pirates, "Well then I guess I'm joining your crew," her declaration was met with a rather loud 'hooray!' from Luffy, and reactions ranging from indifferent to delighted.

The happiness was much more contagious than the indifference and Wren couldn't deny that it felt good to be a part of something. Not only that, but now Wren had a real chance of figuring out how to break the curse. She had spent years researching, not sleeping and constantly being reminded of the promise she made. The only thing that dampened this moment for Wren was that thought she was trying to keep in the back of her mind: _Now I have to tell my Dad_.

* * *

**Author's Note:**First off I need to say my 'thank you's' so: Big thanks to indescribable music, ko-brz, dasw15, LadyAmazon, 93, ComicGeek, and M.i.s.s.P.u.r.p.l.e.V.e.i.l for favoriting/adding this story to their alert system (...I hope I didn't forget anyone, if I did let me know)

And a huge, and I mean huge thanks to **KyoIsMyKitty** for reviewing the last chapter. Also I really really hope your username/review guest name is referring to Kyo in Fruits Basket, I feel like it is, but I don't want to assume anything, but either way it is awesome, and yes all of the members of Wren's family are named after birds and the reason why will be explained later.

So yeah, thanks, you guys rock and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review.


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